NCIS Reviews
Nov. 27th, 2010 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iaria8x07 ‘Enemies Foreign’ & 8x08 ‘Enemies Within’
I quite enjoyed these episodes.
• I loved the flashbacks we got in 8x08 especially the ones detailing the Eli/Vance and Vance/Gibbs relationships. I don’t know if we’ve met McAlister before, I feel like we have, but I really liked him too. His gruffness, his “Alright everybody shut up.” which made me laugh, and his clear friendship with Gibbs and respect of his colleagues. It sucked that he was the bad guy in the end and his motivation didn’t really make all that much sense to me. Especially him showing up at the end to kill Vance – why would he take that risk?
- Still I’m glad it wasn’t Agent Sharp who was bad because I also liked her. The Ducky/Sharp was interesting and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
• I found it really interesting how close a relationship Gibbs had with most of the former Directors, I mean he still talks and meets for coffee with Morrow, but then I guess it makes sense since they were all his bosses at one point. There were a lot of them there and they all seemed to be fairly close in age. Does that mean that NCIS Directors are only in charge for short periods of time and there’s a big change over? Say every five years? I can’t see how it would work otherwise. I like that there were a couple of female Directors. I liked the video conference. I loved the mentions of Jenny.
• I didn’t really feel like Ziva and her father actually resolved what happened between them. I think they made huge strides in Ziva forgiving him, and in her understanding him, and certainly almost losing him has forced her to confront that she does want him in her life. But they didn’t discuss or resolve him abandoning her to death. I wonder if they’re just going to ignore that?
• There is this emphasis on fathers, this season in particular, and a complete ignoring of mothers and it really bugs me. We’ve met and had stories revolving around Gibbs, Tony and Ziva’s fathers now (and all three have dead mother’s who they don’t talk about nor who really affect their lives) and in this episode we get the second mention this season from Abby about her dead father (and how much the loss hurts her). It’s just aggravating. Apparently regardless of whether they’re alive or dead, fathers are still more important than mothers. Frankly at this point that leaves just McGee and I bet we’re going to be meeting his father, who’ll have more of an effect on his life, instead of his mother. Though there is this which I loved:
“Most fathers teach their daughters how to drive, I have you to blame for this?” – Vance
“This she learned from her mother.” – Eli
• I love Gibbs absolute belief and trust in Ziva (“Would be for me; won’t be for Ziva.”).
• I liked Liat and the Ziva/Liat interactions. There was definite tension there but I thought that made a lot of sense – Ziva is stressed and dealing with conflicting emotions over her father as well as feelings about being replaced (by a younger version) and Liat was dealing with being Ziva’s replacement and having to live up to her awesomeness and possibly also resenting Ziva ‘abandoning’ Israel and her family. All of that is expected, even necessary in this first meeting, but I also saw respect there. I want to see more of their interactions so I hope we see Liat again soon. The fight was great. Also I loved that Ziva knew that Liat had erased a part of the message because she is just that good.
• “Ah, of course we’re sleeping together. It’s just nothing serious.” I liked that line. I didn’t feel like there was any judgement on Liat for sleeping with her partner; it’s just something they do. I also liked the Tony/Malachi interactions. They’ve got this interesting mix of antagonistic and friendly. I do wish we’d gotten more interactions between Ziva and Malachi considering they were partners.
• I thought that it was McGee lying in the ruins of the safe house at the end of 8x07. I'm so glad it wasn't.
I quite enjoyed these episodes.
• I loved the flashbacks we got in 8x08 especially the ones detailing the Eli/Vance and Vance/Gibbs relationships. I don’t know if we’ve met McAlister before, I feel like we have, but I really liked him too. His gruffness, his “Alright everybody shut up.” which made me laugh, and his clear friendship with Gibbs and respect of his colleagues. It sucked that he was the bad guy in the end and his motivation didn’t really make all that much sense to me. Especially him showing up at the end to kill Vance – why would he take that risk?
- Still I’m glad it wasn’t Agent Sharp who was bad because I also liked her. The Ducky/Sharp was interesting and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
• I found it really interesting how close a relationship Gibbs had with most of the former Directors, I mean he still talks and meets for coffee with Morrow, but then I guess it makes sense since they were all his bosses at one point. There were a lot of them there and they all seemed to be fairly close in age. Does that mean that NCIS Directors are only in charge for short periods of time and there’s a big change over? Say every five years? I can’t see how it would work otherwise. I like that there were a couple of female Directors. I liked the video conference. I loved the mentions of Jenny.
• I didn’t really feel like Ziva and her father actually resolved what happened between them. I think they made huge strides in Ziva forgiving him, and in her understanding him, and certainly almost losing him has forced her to confront that she does want him in her life. But they didn’t discuss or resolve him abandoning her to death. I wonder if they’re just going to ignore that?
• There is this emphasis on fathers, this season in particular, and a complete ignoring of mothers and it really bugs me. We’ve met and had stories revolving around Gibbs, Tony and Ziva’s fathers now (and all three have dead mother’s who they don’t talk about nor who really affect their lives) and in this episode we get the second mention this season from Abby about her dead father (and how much the loss hurts her). It’s just aggravating. Apparently regardless of whether they’re alive or dead, fathers are still more important than mothers. Frankly at this point that leaves just McGee and I bet we’re going to be meeting his father, who’ll have more of an effect on his life, instead of his mother. Though there is this which I loved:
“Most fathers teach their daughters how to drive, I have you to blame for this?” – Vance
“This she learned from her mother.” – Eli
• I love Gibbs absolute belief and trust in Ziva (“Would be for me; won’t be for Ziva.”).
• I liked Liat and the Ziva/Liat interactions. There was definite tension there but I thought that made a lot of sense – Ziva is stressed and dealing with conflicting emotions over her father as well as feelings about being replaced (by a younger version) and Liat was dealing with being Ziva’s replacement and having to live up to her awesomeness and possibly also resenting Ziva ‘abandoning’ Israel and her family. All of that is expected, even necessary in this first meeting, but I also saw respect there. I want to see more of their interactions so I hope we see Liat again soon. The fight was great. Also I loved that Ziva knew that Liat had erased a part of the message because she is just that good.
• “Ah, of course we’re sleeping together. It’s just nothing serious.” I liked that line. I didn’t feel like there was any judgement on Liat for sleeping with her partner; it’s just something they do. I also liked the Tony/Malachi interactions. They’ve got this interesting mix of antagonistic and friendly. I do wish we’d gotten more interactions between Ziva and Malachi considering they were partners.
• I thought that it was McGee lying in the ruins of the safe house at the end of 8x07. I'm so glad it wasn't.
